resilience
nounUK /ɹɪˈzɪl.ɪ.əns/ · CA, US /ɹɪˈzɪl.jəns/
Etymology From Latin resiliō (“to spring back”) + English -ence.
Human sciences, Medicine, Neuroscience, Psychology, Sciences The mental ability to recover quickly from depression, illness or misfortune.
- Martin Seligman's impressive body of research showed that a pessimistic explanatory style carves a path to depression, while an optimistic explanatory style leads to resilience.2021, Lisa Miller, The Awakened Brain, Ch.2, at p.36
Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Physics The physical property of material that can resume its shape after being stretched or deformed; elasticity.
The positive capacity of an organizational system or company to adapt and return to equilibrium after a crisis, failure or any kind of disruption, including: an outage, natural disasters, man-made disasters, terrorism, or similar (particularly IT systems, archives).
- Network Rail previously said it is determined to build upon the "significant changes" it has made since the accident, which have "helped us to manage the risk of severe weather to the network". It has invested millions to improve the resilience of the railway.2023 October 18, “Network News: Carmont: NR pays nearly £1m in out-of-court settlements”, in RAIL, number 994, page 15:
The capacity to resist destruction or defeat, especially when under extreme pressure.
Literal or figurative
- Related terms
- resile, resiliency, resilient, result, self-sufficiency, sustainability